Flying High
by lostsword
Summary: Dragon Racing, HxA fluff, and some more background information


_Flying High_

**A/N: This is another prequel to my story ADB, which is pretty much just the Dragon Rider's of Berk goofing off and showing off. Hope you enjoy!**

**DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT Own HTTYD or It's Products!**

"Yeah huh!"

"Nuh uh!"

"Yes!"

"No!"

"For the love of Odin will you two shut up!" Ruffnut shouted. The Riders were currently goofing around on a beach near Berk. Astrid and Hiccup had been spending 'Quality Time' with one another for the most parrt, with Fishlegs feeding his Gronckle as he fished out in the water, Tuffnut, Ruffnut and Snoutlout, however, were fighting.

The two male viking's were busy argueing over who's dragon was better and who was stronger, and Ruffut was trying to get them to shut up, since she was growing more and more frustrated with as she put it 'shrill, girlish wailing'.

"But-"

"I-"

"SHUT UP!" Ruffnut yelled and punched Tuffnut right in the jaw, sending him to the ground, yelling something along the lines of 'The Horrible Pain'.

"Look" Astrid finally said, removing herself from Hiccup, who she had been 'Socializing' with. "You guys obviously won't shut up until one of you is better. So let's deal with this the only way we can" she then gave them her infamous grin. Causing the three of them, along with Hiccup, to gulp. "We have a Race!" she stated. "Here, tomorrow, midday. We all race, the one that wins gets to be the better dragon rider ok?" she paused. "Oh..and you two will SHUT UP" she added the last part with a hiss.

"Ok" Ruffut said, liking the idea.

Snoutlout nodded. "Ok, but Hiccup can't be in it!" he said.

"What's the matter?" Astrid asked. "Is widdle Snouty scared?" she said, with a over dramatic baby voice.

Snoutlout scoffed. "Of course not. No way! Let em try the! I'll beat him too!" he shouted, almost spitting everywhere.

Astrid just crossed her arms and grinned as the majority of the Rider's headed home, to practice for the upcoming challenge. Astrid and Hiccup, heh, well you know they were busy continuing their 'Socializing'

/

The next day, the Rider's had gathered at the beach once more, except, on Ruffnut and Astrid's encouragement, they had brought along a decent part of the village, who wanted to see what would happen.

The sun was out, shining above their heads and the seagulls were crying as they flew overhead. Small swarms of dragons were flying around, looking for fish, Viking fishing boats were already out on the water as well, their lines cast and nets dunked.

The beach itself was crowded with not just the crowd of villagers, but the Dragon Rider's of Berk and their steeds. Directly behind them stood Stoick, Spitelout and Sigrum, the three main Warriors of the tribe, with Stoick as their chief and the two latter ones being his second and third in command. Respectively.

"Ready?" Astrid asked as she walked over to him.

Hiccup nodded. "Yeah, of course" he said with a lopsided grin. "It's not like im worried...or anything like that" he added as he began to rub his arm.

Astrid punched his arm. "Stop that" she ordered. "Makes you look worried" she added and then kissed his cheek. "Good luck" she said over her shoulder as headed for her own dragon, Nad.

Hiccup only nodded hastily, not trusting his voice at the moment. Then he heard the shell horn go off, and knew the race was about to begin. Moving quickly, the brunette jumped onto Toothless, and felt his prosthetic leg connect with the saddle with a clink, just as his other, normal, foot slid into the stirrup. "Ready boy?" Hiccup asked softly, trying to keep his breakfast down.

Toothless gave a affirmative bark, a bit of blue flame shooting out at the corner sof his mouth. There was another shell blast. The others were also prepping their dragons. Astrid winked at him. Another shell blast. Time to go.

There was a few gasps and cheers from the crowd as the sand exploded into the air, ten feet out over the water were the riders, their dragon's beating their wings as their riders all screamed in either fear or enjoyment. The latter belonging to Hiccup, Astrid and the Thortsons, because those two were too crazy to be scared of anything. Snoutlout and Fishlegs of course, were still getting used to riding dragons, just like the Thorston's. And of course, when your still pretty green on the saddle of a dragon. You will be surprised at first.

Hiccup whooped loudly as they blasted farther out across the sea, now flying towards the first part of the Sea Course. The Pillars of Odin. Dozens of pillars, about thirty to fifty feet high, were scattered around the first part of the course, which was near the village. The trick, was to maneuver through the maze, but it was a lot harder then most would think.

Speaking of which. Hiccup banked hard, nearly tossing himself from his saddle, and barely missed the first of the pillars, which had popped up faster then he had anticipated. Glancing around, he found Astrid and Snoutlout racing ahead of him, both a good ten feet above him. Behind him, The Thorston's were once again fighting over their current place in the race, and Fishlegs had just passed them, coming up on Toothless and Hiccup.

"We gotta speed up" Hiccup said to his friend. Toothless, already seeing Nad and Spitfire ahead of him, nodded his scaly head and whipped his tail down, sending a fountain of water up behind him as the Night Fury shot past the two surprised and confused warriors and their dragons.

Hiccup, during the entire ride past Astrid and Snoutlout, was clinging tight to the saddle and was practically burying himself into the leathery pad as the wind cut into his hair, skin and clothes as if the demons themselves had taken control of the very air.

The fury he rode on, meanwhile, barreled to the side, dodging another pillar, before spinning again and again. This continued for about fifteen more seconds, as both the Fury and his rider tried to keep ahead of the gaining Spitfire and Nad, and their respective riders, ass well as dodging the pillars before them.

But soon, at last, they made it out of the Pillars of Odin and made it to the Rings of Atlantis. Just behind him, Astrid, Nad and Snoutlout and Spitfire were right on their tails. Diving, the Night Fury shot right at the first ring.

The way the Rings of Atlantis worked, was that their were naturally formed stone arches that sat on the water on the outskirts of Berk, with the stone pillars rising from the sparkling waters of Berk like a great sea creature, then connecting together. What made it that much more interesting was that there were stones in rock, and the sun seemed to have an effect on them, for, depending on the angle of the sun, the rocks would change color, ranging from dazzling purples and greens, to blood reds and moon lit silvers along with bright blues and shadowy blacks.

As Hiccup passed under the first ring, he noticed the rocks were currently a glowing gold, since the sun was high in the sky above them. Now, the real part of the course came into play. He had to get to the next one. The rings were far apart and often hard to find, but Hiccup was sure he could get to it soon, but the fact was, could he get to it _in_ _time_? As if to prove this thought, Astrid whooped for joy as she shot over him, heading straight, then banking to the left.

Hiccup, knowing that she knew where the next one was for sure, decided to follow after her. Issuing a command via a pull on Toothless's saddle, the dragon shot after Astrid, gaining on her once more. Behind him, Hiccup could hear the sounds of Spitfire as it breathed small flames, showing the signs that it was running out of stamina.

Encouraged by this fact, Hiccup made another slight gesture with the stirrups and Toothless shot forward once again, diving under another arch and now only a bit behind Astrid, but unfortunately Toothless was beginning to tire as well.

Astrid must have realized this, because she and her dragon began flying faster, pumping every bit of speed they could into Nad's wings, trying desperately to keep ahead. Lucky for her, the Ice Caves were up next.

Diving under the last arch, Hiccup thought of how he could pass Astrid here. The Ice caves were the coldest part of Berk. It had icy stalactites and stalagmites as well as a few freezing pools of water inside, the entire area was a dangerous zone, but it made a great obstacle. There were over a hundred ways in and out of the caves, and after that, it was a straight dash for the beach, and the finish line.

Hiccup then remembered an old ice passage he and Toothless had stumbled upon when he had first started exploring the caves, it cut right through the main cavern passages and, as far as he knew, was the quickest way through. He only hoped Astrid didn't know of it.

Putting on another burst of speed, the three leaders began the last leg of the race. And the most dangerous.

Astrid was the first inside, followed by Hiccup. The bright blue island sky vanished over his head as the view changed to that of dark rock with ice covering it in various places, the thick and dangerous ice pillars already causing the dragon riders trouble as they tried to evoid crashing in the cramped quarters of the caverns.

Hiccup was hot on Astrid's tail, or rather Nad's tail, when he saw the small, barely big enough to fit Toothless into, cracked hole in the side of the cavern that led to the short cut. Deciding it was now or never, he banked hard and ducked down, pressing his body once more into the leather saddle as the duo shot into the hole and then out of it, into a slightly larger tunnel, though it was still barely large enough to hold them, Hiccup himself was only able to peak over Toothless's head to be able to see.

After a few more seconds they shot out of the tunnel, and into the main cavern, before them was the mouth of the caven where the golden beach was, and the finish line, which was nothing more then a bunch of sea shells put in a line, marking the end of the race.

Hearing a surprised gasp next to him, Hiccup turned and mentally groaned. His shortcut had worked, but not well enough. He was now _Beside_ Astrid, meaning it was a test of speed to the end now.

Normally this would mean Hiccup would win. But with the strain both the rider and dragon had taken from the constant boosting forward at such high speeds, Toothless was now barely able to keep ahead, and only by a nose or two.

The two dragons continued to race, neck in neck, or horn in horn. Their riders shared a short, 'I'm Gonna Win' glance with the other for a split second, then they bushed it to the limit, the wind blasting at them harder then ever before, the waves below them being shot all around them in ever direction, as if a massive invisible fireball was passing overhead.

They were less then a hundred feet from the beach, closing in on it by every second. Hiccup felt sweat rolling down his face and his palms growing moist as the two riders continued to grow closer and closer to the end of race.

Astrid seemed to be growing more worried as well, because she was whispering something to her own dragon, and she began to speed up a bit, though it was obviously taking a toll on Nad.

Hiccup himself was doing the same thing. "Come on boy" he encouraged and the Night Fury redoubled his efforts.

Just when there seemed to be no sight at the end, that there would be a tie between the two, something happened.

It happened so fast, Hiccup had trouble registering it. All of the sudden there was gust of win around him and he found Astrid flying above him, but she was _upside down_. She had seemed to flip over, now flying above him, looking down at him, with a gleam in her bright icy blue eyes.

Then, she leaned down and just barely brushed her lips across his own. But even that did it. His concentration broke and he tried to return the kiss, only for the elusive blond to bring her dragon into another flip, now once again beside him and out of his reach. By then, it was to late.

To late, Hiccup realized that he had leaned upwards to reach her. To late, he realized that Toothless's fake wing wasn't unfolded. And to late, did Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third realize that he was going down.

With a crash, Hiccup and Toothless smashed into the water, and adding that to his speed, calling it jolting would have been like saying Snoutlout was a nice, caring person who picked daisies and loved children. Hiccup, if it had not been for his stirrups, would have been thrown form the saddle, or rather just dragged away. The blast hit him hard and he swore he saw stars.

By the time he managed to get Toothless and himself back to the surface, the rest of the riders were clearing the caverns, Snoutlout and Astrid were already on the beach. Wanting to save what bit of dignity they had left, Hiccup and Toothless shot off into the air, a bit clumsily at first however. They just barely managed to make it to the beach before the others.

Stopping to catch his breath, Hiccup waited a minute before he dismounted Toothless, who was also breathing heavily. Astrid was already moving over to his side. "You ok?" she asked with a tense of worry in her voice. "I...i didn't expect you to do that" she admitted.

Hiccup remained silent. "Hic-" Astrid was surprisingly cut off by Hiccup smiling and bringing her to him for a strong kiss.

"I'm fine" he assured her after a minute, once they broke apart. "But" he saw her shoulders slag. "My...mouth does feel a bit bruised" he fake pouted.

"Well then, since I can't stand to see you in pain, I'll just have to make it better" she said, teasingly and returned for another kiss, and another. You get the idea.

/

**I hope you enjoyed...**

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